Every piece of pseudo-scientific, anti-semitic trash that ended up on the conference table (as lunch time reading) during my stint at the aforementioned think-t

Every piece of pseudo-scientific, anti-semitic trash that ended up on the conference table (as lunch time reading) during my stint at the aforementioned think-tank has strongly influenced how I approach topics such as this. The ability to dissemble and justify anti-semitism (or anti-Mormonism, or anti-theism, or anti-anything) is difficult to appreciate if you haven't literally been at the receiving end of it. Like I said, there may be some merit there. But much like claimed inventions that bare suspicious relationships to perpetual motion machines, you develop a more sophisticated filter for this kind of stuff when exposed to it. Whether the material is right or wrong is beside the point. If it has merit then invariably it will come in a different package sooner rather than later. Time is scarce, and attention is oxygen for people with an ax to grind. Of course, reasonable people can disagree. It's a judgment call. But we all apply these sorts of qualitative filters, whether we're willing to admit it or not, and I happen to be basing mine on [what I believe to be] some experiential wisdom, which I'm sharing. Like I said, the notion that schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations could be plausible explanations for the experience (and credibility) of historical prophets (as well as for oracles and other spiritual figures) is perfectly legitimate. In fact, personally I'd be surprised if there wasn't a substantive connection. But, honestly, what's the purpose of trying to analyze in tedious detail Islam (or Christianity, or w'ever) in that manner? Only with a hopelessly naive and simplistic conception of religion could it matter; organized religions are only nominally predicated on such stories. On the balance of probabilities, anyone expending such an effort invariably has suspect motives--not necessarily malicious, just not well suited to scientifically constructive discourse. There are many other avenues of exploration that don't involve such a conspicuous preoccupation. Ditto regarding a paper discussing the "entheogen theory of the rise of Mormonism."